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Sunday, October 5

Mini Milestones

This post is part of a year-long partnership with the Netflix #StreamTeam. I received a one year Netflix streaming subscription and an iPad mini for participating. I've been a paying customer of Netflix for 8 years--I'd be lost without her. Thanks for reading!

"Don't worry mama, I'm not getting ice cream," he says as he opens the freezer. His little hand dips in and pulls out a frozen muffin. He sets it on the counter and opens the corner cabinet for a purple plastic Ikea plate. He unwraps the muffin, puts it on the plate and walks over to the microwave atop the counter on the other side of the kitchen. He opens the door, slides the plate in on his tip toes, slams the door and carefully presses the "off" button--shortly followed by the "30 second" button when nothing happens the first time.

He waits patiently for the beep, grabs his plate, wobbles it around in the air and takes it to his little red Land of Nod chair for a nice TV time snack.

What am I even here for? Apparently all can be handled with me otherwise occupied. Basically, he's an adult now.

Luckily he still lets me stick him in a baby swing once in a while. I'm all right with him growing up a little--but not all at once.

This is how he plays now. It's all about pretending (and I love it).

Once a month he naps. It looks like this:

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His hair is shorter now. Tom and I decided to try to cut it ourselves this weekend--how hard can it be? Harder than one would think. As Tom wielded the scissors, I said "don't worry, we'll just take him to get it fixed if it doesn't look good. He won't care." And he didn't.

I have premonitions, what can I say. "You didn't do a great job, Daddy." Welp. That was it.

We took him to get it fixed and it had to go shorter than planned. Our determination isn't over (at least Tom's isn't). All three of us thought it was a jolly good time. Carter, perched on a kitchen chair with the iPad and a lolly pop, ready for round two.

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Tonight Carter had a hard time falling asleep. His routine now is to lay in his bed with the door open. while we're somewhere else upstairs--either our room or the office. Tonight he scratched his finger nails against the wall as I worked in the office. "Mommy? Mommy? Mommy?" and then "Hey daddy, I have to go tell mommy something real quick." He hopped out of bed, flung open the office door and just stared at me with a grin.

About 42 scenarios (all varying slightly) played out until, "Do you need someone to lay with you tonight, buddy?"

"Bofe of you."

And so we did. And Gemma. But then as Carter turned to press his nose to mine, we locked eyes and got the giggles. I don't even know what made us start, but we laughed in unison and for the first time I felt like he was exactly like me. We wheezed at the same time, sucked in deep breaths simultaneously; took a brief pause, and lost control again. It was one of my favorite moments as a mom. Acting completely like a kid and stopping my three-year-old from getting to bed on a school night with a field trip the next day.

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What "mini milestones" are you celebrating? Netflix has a cool little list of shows and movies that correspond to lots of "firsts." Here are a few ideas: